What do you, a regenerative economy and saving democracy have in common? Unprecedented times of chaos, disruption and change.
This may feel like I have strayed from my business blog. Yet to me, this is what the times require. It in many ways is the continued growth path I have been on with all my ideas on coherence.
A few months ago, I was planning on writing a blog post on climate anxiety. I was also thinking about a post that would be a 12-step program to let go of our current economy as we move to a more regenerative one. Then I was thinking about writing a post-election mourning piece. None of these felt right for the moment.
Recently I took a short-term temp gig as a brand ambassador to help pay for some expensive dental work I am in the midst of having done. This gig had me spending time in places where I rarely frequent being able to watch a parade of humanity go by.
What I watched is something I knew intellectually but seeing it up close and personal had such a visceral effect. Here is what I am thinking about and some proposed recommendations.
Americans are ill and I mean all of us! I mean it quite literally. We are obese and so much more. Forget AI an American growth industry is canes. The number of people significantly younger than me who use shopping carts as walkers is staggering. Someone’s gait can speak volumes about someone. No exercise at all and a poor diet plus countless other areas of self-sabotage are leaving us with the shells of humanity at best. I can’t imagine how many prescription drugs they must be taking. Think that 80% of what is sold in supermarkets and convenience stores is highly processed and/or otherwise unhealthy and that “non-food” is on the self because millions of people are buying it. We worship money more than life, yet we support a system that moves the “American Dream” further and further away from our grasp. Tech companies talk about eliminating friction as a path to financial success. There is a growing belief we collectively need more friction in our lives. Resilience requires adversity. How often in your day-to-day life do you actively choose adversity and challenge? I don’t “see” it often.
Collectively we have no purpose in life any more than short-term gratification. One sugar/fat/salt high to the next. We are dead spiritually even though we worship and believe. We are so disconnected from each other that we are unable to carry on simple conversations looking our conversational partner in the eye. We are voluntarily self-sabotaging our lives and from a place of fear and blaming others. Are you getting and giving enough love (including yet way beyond romantic love).
Collectively we have FAILED the marsh mellow test (a famous psychological test first given to children to test if they could delay gratification for a bigger reward later). We think of ourselves as a society as brave (home of the brave etc.). Yet we are not even close to being brave enough to pass on dessert. We are not brave enough to ignore Amazon’s convenience and supposed low prices. Lack of bravery comes from a deep place; we are losing our very soul. We are disconnected from the source of all goodness.
The loneliness epidemic and deaths of despair don’t feel surprising based on these observations. Now I am far from a perfect specimen, this is not about criticizing “those people” who truth be told are across all various spectrums we feel that divide us, we are them. There are many other versions of this in that skinny active people can be just as anxious and dysfunctional. Few have the emotional and spiritual depth required for our times. We are completely unified in our lack of self-love, our lack of purpose, and our ability to connect with each other. Our inability to delay our urges leads to our collective unhealth which leads to our feelings of being victims of others. Our trauma may be real, yet it is not deterministic. We can’t claim to be the home of the brave with our current soulless capitulation to immediate gratification. TV over spinach, Facebook over walking, porn over community.
There is a Finnish group that when they observed how badly we are missing accomplishing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals they rightly focused on our Inner Development Goals.
With such a universal backdrop here are my suggestions that I believe and are intended to improve our own lives, improve our communities and thus have an economy that works in service to life and save democracy.
First, healthy happy people with purpose are not destructive, they are positive contributors. Second, our purpose will make us resilient participants in a new regenerative economy. Finally, healthy, happy people are active participants in democracy. Too many of us have convinced ourselves we are healthy and happy, how can we save democracy if we can’t tell ourselves the truth?
Self (this is not a self-help manual it simply aspires to stimulate thought into action)
Eat a healthy diet
Exercise (everyone can walk daily)
Coherence Practices- reduce stress, increase resilience, enhance creativity, improve sleep, enhance health (lower blood pressure, etc.) they ripple beyond us in the collective unified field. There are many more positive results. Please see them in other of my blog posts. Some coherence practices include meditation (all kinds) Yoga, breathe work, mindfulness, time in nature, gratitude journaling, prayer, and many more also discussed in more depth in other blog posts. This great transition requires we get out of our heads and into our hearts and guts, this is WISDOM. Wisdom will help us through this in a way that “good ideas” will not.
We are living in historic times, be present. Witnessing is hugely important. This may require giving up drugs and alcohol to be present in your own life. If that feels hard, you have just self-diagnosed yourself as not being brave and probably without a purpose.
Radical transparency is a challenge, we all have a vast array of juicy rationalizations for our poor decisions. Let’s try to know where we are and be kind and supportive of each other.
Community As humans all value being engaged with over humans, find your tribe where you can truly be authentic, supported, be encouraged to grow and be your highest and best self, and importantly have fun, Laughter is a wonderful medicine. Whom we choose to spend our time with has a huge impact on who we are, from health to intellectual stimulation, to our values our communities have a huge impact, Choose wisely. Gather regularly.
Support locally owned independent businesses whenever possible. EVERY time you spend money you vote for the kind of world you want. If your only filter is convenience and price, you have much work to do in the bravery and purpose department. Support enterprises that reflect your environmental and social aspirations including local non-profits. Billionaires don’t care about you, your neighbor who owns a business does.
Develop mutual support networks. Solar owners can provide cell phone charges if the grid is not fully functional, gardeners can trade veggies for …. You get the point.
Advocate Vote! Lobby (email, phone, in person)! Demonstrate locally! Be the change! No one knows what is on our minds or what we value if we don’t tell them. We now have numerous ways to communicate and use them. Although remember social media is a cop-out, we can show up in person every week, once a month, you decide, just do it. Just like with exercise the rewards after the fact are amazing. So goes expressing a well-informed policy preference.
If this sounds hard it is. No one EVER promised you an easy life. When we pass on the marsh mellow, things do get better. Every time (not often enough) I deny myself that in the short term the future is magical. If any of this feels hard now, try to imagine societal collapse. We all watched more than a few dystopian movies. In the near term future, what will your life be like if your various insurance policies shoot up 400% in costs if you can even get it. What if your bank collapses? What if the internet collapses?
These three areas are suggestions for a starting point. It is up to you to pick your flavor and co-create your path forward.
Do you have a generator for when the power grid fails? What will you put on the menu when Mad Max comes to dinner?
If this feels fanciful and unreal congratulations, you are just like 99% of humans in America and beyond.
My love for my friends is in most cases far deeper and important to me than they imagine. That caring is in part why I am so passionate about this topic.
Will all this really come to pass? I don’t know. No one does! I do know for certain there is virtual no chance of us getting through this next decade without MASSIVE change. Our stories will change. For better or not.
What is the antidote to massive change? As above be personally resilient, organize and participate in community, and advocate.
This path will be the least daunting for healthy happy people. Wanting to restore justice to the least supported among us feels too hard if the “black hole of despair” is driving your poor decisions.
I am advocating for collective healing. It doesn’t matter where we are, personally we are all one collective consciousness. We are all in this together, although the stories we tell ourselves may be far lonelier. This is something the billionaire class” has not figured out to all our detriment. They can hide in expensive bunkers; it won’t save them and certainly not their souls.
This is tough love (we need so much more love everywhere all the time), although I hope folks will join me in focusing on the love portion. Most people I know will read this, how much hot water I am in remains an unknown. I am choosing bravery and my life’s purpose over comfortable conversations. I have lightly broached many deep topics and I am pretty sure I have forgotten many others I will regret having let slip through my memory. None of that really matters if action is taken.
Stop just complaining and join me in acting. Tell me where the next demonstration is happening.
Be brave, get off your ass, and live a life worth living full of hope, promise, health, happiness and joy. Embrace the change it is coming whether you do or not. Far from being a judge, I simply hope to motivate something in my belief virtually all of us need.
As for me, I have been on this path in various ways for decades, yet I am clear I can’t talk to you without talking to me. I have touched on so many topics here, probably doing none of them justice. My growth shows up in my willingness here to begin to speak in ways that may be uncomfortable, not a personal strength yet I am trying to show up as bravely as these times require. I look forward to the vibrant wisdom-based discussions I pray we have.